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After Protest Over Award, Neil Gaiman and Art Spiegelman Agree to Be Table Hosts at PEN Gala

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After Protest Over Award, Neil Gaiman and Art Spiegelman Agree to Be Table Hosts at PEN Gala

By Andrew R. Chow May 3, 2015 1:20 pmMay 3, 2015 1:20 pm

Photo

The author Neil Gaiman will be among those replacing the six writers who dropped out of the gala to protest the honoring of the French magazine Charlie Hebdo.Credit Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times

Neil Gaiman, Art Spiegelman, and Alison Bechdel are among writers who have agreed to be table hosts at the PEN American Center gala on Tuesday, replacing those who dropped out to protest the presentation of the group’s “freedom of expression courage award” to the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

Last month, six writers, including Peter Carey, Rachel Kushner and Teju Cole withdrew from the gala, citing what they considered Charlie Hebdo’s cultural intolerance and Islamophobia. In an Op-Ed article in The Times on Saturday, PEN’s president, Andrew Solomon, and executive director, Suzanne Nossel, responded, saying that Charlie Hebdo’s valor lies not in the sometimes offensive nature of their cartoons mocking the Prophet Muhammad and other targets, but “in their dauntless fortitude patrolling the outer precincts of free speech.”

The newly named hosts also include George Packer, Azar Nafisi and Alain Mabanckou, a French-Congolese novelist who will officially present the award.

“The Charlie Hebdo PEN award is for courage. The courage to work after the 2011 firebombing of the offices, the courage to put out their magazine in the face of murder,” said Mr. Gaiman in an email to The Times. “If we cannot applaud that, then we might as well go home…I’ll be proud to host a table on Tuesday night.”

A version of this article appears in print on 05/04/2015, on page C3 of the NewYork edition with the headline: Gaiman and Spiegelman to Be PEN Gala Hosts.